Looking Back

The Homeschool Village has a great query posted this week:

1. If you were to "grade" yourself on homeschooling this past year ... what "grade" would you have earned? What if your children were grading you?

Self Eval

I'm going with a "B." It was a hard year. We started a UMS in the fall with 14 students, going 3 days a week. Until the end of October at which time we were burned out of our house. 4 days later my 48 yo sister died, requiring that we spend a week in Ohio. Upon return home we had to empty our house before our typically very, very cold winter set in. We made it, with the help of friends. We spent a month in a hotel, my dh fighting pneumonia and then made it to a leased house early December. The UMS went to a 1-day a week academic class day and we spent the spring sorting through smoked and damaged items, inventorying possessions and working with contractors to rebuild our home.
Yea, it was a hard year.
Thanks to our class day we stayed very consistent with several courses, we went on-line with Latin (CLAA) for my 15 yo and we relied heavily on CD's for a couple of subjects. The fire caused us to have to wait as we re-ordered some basics- math for everyone for instance and Biology. Geez. I'm getting emotionally exhausted just thinking about it.
We stayed the course as much as we could, but my soon to be Sophomore isn't done with Algebra I, Bio or Latin I even yet. We have another move coming up in a week and have been working on the house like crazy. He is earning at least an Industrial Arts course this summer!

My greatest areas of weakness were getting too tired, physically and emotionally. Actually the thought of gearing up for fall is really cooking my grits right now. Summer is going way to fast. I really, really want to go somewhere and play "Summer Vacation."
But I digress; Cub and Flower got a lot done in math, english, history, art, drama and some music. I could have ramped up the Latin and Science.
Feche-boy did great at what he's finished with the exception of handing work due in on time for the co-op. Organizational Skills need worked on.

I have done some thinking about fall and we've signed-up for a weekly co-op but I still need to order some books (more math, of course). Feche-boy wants to go out of cycle with History and delve into Explorers to Moderns. He did Omni II 2 years ago (Medieval and Reformation) and MP's Ancients last year. He has an incredible grasp of history so I'm actually fine with that. I mentioned Omni III to him and he groaned so I'm looking for a different spine. I LOVED MP's study guides for high school but they aren't published yet (I had an "in" last year- lucky us, they were GREAT). I'm pretty sure I'll dray the notsolittles along for the ride. Makes things easier all 'round.

Kids Eval

Flower (age 7, rising 2nd): "A"- because you did all the school automatically and wanted to get it done really early (LOL!!!). Also, staying sharp with friends (meaning she had lots of friend time).
Cub: "A+" (Age -10, rising 5th) - for being a good homeschooler and trying your best to have patience (LOL!!! as I type- if you only knew what this boy and I have gone through this year!).
Feche-Boy (age 15, rising Soph.) -"B+" - this one is claiming ignorance stating he was keeping track of his own grades- LOL!
Great idea to do a self- eval. I did a LOT of soul-searching, evaluating this year as I inventoried not only all of our earthly possessions but how we've invested our time over the past couple of decades. I prefer this method = )!

Please feel free to link up or read more self evaluations at Homeschool Village.